Originally Posted by
indyfabz
The chapter still has costs it needs to cover. Office space. Utilities. Salaries. Insurance. (Big one.) Postage. It may also have been paying for policing. Permits? There are a lot of hidden costs involved with even relatively small events. (My local club moved the start of its century outside the city because of hidden costs like having to pay for a city electrician to be on location since an electric coffee pot was plugged into an outlet at city-owned building.)
You sure things like signage and rider numbers were donated? What about T-shirts and other incentives?
In any event, it's about the efficient use of resources and generating an acceptable ROI, if you will, and bike fundraisers are on the more costly end of the spectrum compared to things like walks.
My old friend who used to run the City to Shore back when there were maybe fewer than 2,000 riders raising a combined $2 million once joked that if the chapter had its way, the event would consists of one person raising that amount. That brings me back to my point about events like that not wanting people like the OP, who simply want to cover costs. No different than a restaurant not wanting a diner who only wants to pay the establishment's cost of supplying a meal. The events are expressly designed to be "profitable." If there is not sufficient profit to justify the effort, the organization, unlike a private business, which can operate at a loss if it so chooses, has an obligation to devote its resources to more profitable ventures.
I just called the lady I worked with who was at that time an MS employee. She was in charge of the Walk/bike events when we still had them.
anyways not to get too off topic here, she gave me the general breakdown.
The last year there was about 4600$ for entrance fees...
We had a pre-party and packet pick up that were packed by volunteers. The packets costed MS 12.00$ish a bag. We did have a taco bar a local place that was 1500 for that.
Day of ride we used a MUP and public roads. The start and finish line was public parking lot adjacent to a park, city waved permit fee's for fundraiser events, still does to this day.
Ride stops were all done by our LBS, 5 stops, 3 bike shops, one running club and one hospital ran our stops. They provided everything at the stops, water, snacks, and small bike repair set ups. Actually our hospital provided almost all the beverages/food at the stops. Repair set up at every stop were put up by the bike shops too. Sag wagon was done by one of our local racing clubs. MS paid for their gas but they did the rest.
finish line event they got the usual MS bling stuff....We didn't provide foods we had our local food trucks show up and gave the riders good prices. I am sure they still did well even at a discount. One finish line bonus was a free beer. A local dist. owners wife has MS so he would give everyone a the finish line a free beer. That was pretty fun actually. Was all free to MS.
Advertising was 90% taken care of by the local media, we didn't purchase any banners/signs locally. We got some large banner and inflatables from the MS HQ. We didn't pay for any electricity, the city also let us use that for free. Again fundraising events such as these were very welcome by the city. they just hooked up a couple of breakers to a light pole and we had power. Everything was outside. I don't remember the tents, I am sure those had to be rented. I didn't ask about those. Probably another 1,000 for tents?
We were a small event in the grand scheme of things. Only one person was paid, the MS employee the rest of us were volunteers.
We seriously did this event for under 7K, this is not including the MS employees pay, she was getting that always because she was running all the events. I know that factors in but we costed 5K or their about, the last year we raised after entrance fees $44,190.
They said that wasn't enough to keep it going. They cleared 40-42K easy.....See why we call this BS! Again we were not an event with thousands of people with much logistical issues with permits/fees/city approvals but you get my point.
In the end its a business decision whether I like it or not. I have a personal passion for the terrible MS to ease the pain with those who have it. So cancelling our local ride didn't sit well with me.
---carry on---